As the Year of the Horse begins in the Chinese calendar, the cavalry arrived to relieve the first line of the Maple Leafs and their sweat-stained stopper.

After signs in recent games the team would finally address its over-reliance on Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak, as well as make life easier on Jonathan Bernier, four goals from three different forwards and a defenceman led Tuesday’s 6-3 rout of the Florida Panthers.

Third-period conversions came from Joffrey Lupul and Nikolai Kulemin, while Nazem Kadri bagged three assists, including his 100th National Hockey League point. Coach Randy Carlyle set the tone by starting the night with his third line of Troy Bodie, Peter Holland and Mason Raymond, the latter scoring 27 seconds into the middle period to tie the match.

“Naz was the difference maker tonight, probably the best game he’s played at both ends of the rink in a long time,” Carlyle said. “Mason was very visible and Lupes, you’ve all seen him score from that area with his big-league shots. There has been a fit with Kulie as a right winger and Lupes being a better left winger, which is mind-boggling at times because one’s a right shot and one’s a left.

“Cody Franson made a mistake (a soft clearing pass that helped Sean Bergenheim give the Cats a 2-0 lead) and then redeemed himself with a rocket off the post and in. Those are the things that uplift your group.”

Franson now has two goals in Janaury after going until Dec. 11 without one.

“All the top teams in the league have that help from the defence group and we try and do the best we can to make the (top line’s) job easier,” Franson said.

There was still ample assistance from van Riemsdyk with a goal and assist, with Kessel getting two assists and using speed to draw the penalty that led to Lupul’s power play goal. There was also a role for Bernier, with 35 saves overall after the shock of two early goals. He’s now on the verge of 20 victories in his first season as a Leaf.

“Getting three (straight) goals is huge,” Bernier said. “It didn’t feel like 38 shots against me. They had just two 2-on-1s and one breakaway. Everything else was from the outside.”

Any team with playoff intent needs to beat teams beneath them in the standings and win at home. The Leafs have done a lot of both lately, making it four straight against the mushy middle of the Eastern Conference pack and five straight at the ACC, tying their season high from the hot start in October and early November. They can extend both streaks on Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, before a Sunshine State road trip.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Franson said. “I don’t know if you can call it a swagger, but it’s getting better. We didn’t get out to the start we wanted to at home this season. We want this place to be a difficult one to takes points from. We’re progressing to that, maturing as a group, sticking with it. It’s a good sign.”

The ACC crowd had its doubts early on, unsettled by a goal at 1:39 by Nick Bjugstad. Jake Gardiner was caught up ice, Kadri was beaten on the wall and was slow to get back and hinder Bjugstad’s breakaway. That burned Carlyle to the point the coach broke up kids Gardiner and Morgan Rielly the rest of the night, giving Rielly prime minutes with the more steady Tim Gleason.

“Our starts are something we’re working on, but you can’t take away from our resilience,” Raymond said.

Bodie noted the “vote of confidence” from the coach to start the line all three periods and to finish the game.

“Hopefully, we can get things going in a game and get the puck to Mason with his speed. In the second period, he was off to the races. It’s great we can win at home, it takes some of the pressure off on the road.”

With two goals in the first 58 ticks of the second period, before many had returned to their seats from intermission, the Leafs seized the initiative.

Raymond had his fourth goal since Dec. 5 and Toronto needed just nine seconds into a Scott Gomez penalty to take the lead. Van Riemsdyk, who assisted on Franson’s goal, snapped his 22nd past ex-Leaf Scott Clemmensen. Those quick strikes, the first time in two months Toronto had goals within a minute of the start of a period, were followed by several Bernier saves and shot blocks. Gleason had five of Toronto’s 13 blocks on the night after a series of mishaps in the line of fire made him questionable for Tuesday.

“He’s an animal, that guy,” praised Kadri. “He’ll stand in front of anything. That’s important for a team to have those defencemen, those players who do anything for the team.”

Leaf penalty killing was a key as well, 5-for-5 against the worst power play in the league. There were two calls on Gleason, including a weird one when he seemed to elbow a puck over the glass to earn a delay of game minor. Partial breakaways by van Riemsdyk and Jay McClement turned the tables on Florida.

Right after killing a third-period minor to Dion Phaneuf, Kadri and Lupul dug the puck out for Kulemin’s eighth of the year. Lupul had the fifth goal, just his second in the past 11 games. Marcel Goc out-drew Holland and Dmitry Kulikov beat Bernier from the left point, but the Leafs survived to win just their fifth regulation game this year when trailing after 20 minutes.

A month that started with Winter Classic magic that turned to panic turned out fine after all.